SanDisk

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

SanDisk Corporation
Public
S&P 500 Component
Traded as NASDAQSNDK
Industry Flash memory storage solutions
Founded 1988; 36 years ago (1988)
Headquarters Milpitas, California, United States
Key people
Sanjay Mehrotra
Co-Founder, President and CEO
Judy Bruner
EVP, Administration and CFO
Sumit Sadana
EVP and Chief Strategy Officer and GM, Enterprise Solutions
Siva Sivaram
EVP, Memory Technology
Revenue Increase US$ 6.628 billion (2014)[1]
Increase US$ 1.848 billion (2014)[1]
Profit Increase US$ 1.22 billion (2014)[1]
Total assets Decrease US$ 10.290 billion (2014)[1]
Total equity Decrease US$ 6.527 billion (2014)[1]
Website www.sandisk.com

SanDisk Corporation is a company that designs, develops and manufactures flash memory storage devices and software. SanDisk is the third-largest manufacturer of flash memory in the world.[2] In October 2015, Western Digital agreed to buy SanDisk Corp in a $19 billion deal.[3]

Description

SanDisk USB

SanDisk has manufactured storage products used in data centers and embedded in smartphones, tablets and PCs. SanDisk’s consumer products are available at 300,000 retail stores in more than 100 countries.[4]

The Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices, design centers, test and assembly plants and NAND flash memory fabs located around the world. The company has manufacturing facilities in China, Japan and Malaysia. SanDisk has sales, operations, research and development, and administration in the United States, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. More than half the company’s sales are outside the United States.[5]

The company has more than 8,600 employees worldwide.

SanDisk is publicly traded on NASDAQ. As of June 2015, its market capitalization was over US$13.3 billion.

SanDisk is led by Sanjay Mehrotra, co-founder, president, and chief executive officer.

Business focus

The company markets flash memory products directly to businesses, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), value-added resellers, system integrators, and consumers.

Key product lines

Solid State Drives (SSDs)
  • SATA SSDs
  • SAS SSDs
  • PCIe SSAs
  • Flash DIMM
Enterprise software
  • FlashSoft software
Embedded storage
  • iNAND embedded Flash drives
  • iSSD
Memory cards
  • SD cards
  • microSD cards
  • CompactFlash cards
  • Memory Stick PRO Duo
  • Card readers
  • Nintendo Game Cards
Software & services
  • ExpressCache
  • Cloud Catcher
  • Media Manager
  • Memory Zone
  • SanDisk SecureAccess
Music & video players
USB storage
  • USB Flash drives
Wireless memory drive
  • SanDisk Wireless Flash drive
  • SanDisk Wireless media drive

Corporate acquisitions

  • On 21 Oct 2015, Hard drive manufacturer, Western Digital announced a deal to buy SanDisk for about $19 billion.[6]
  • SanDisk acquired Fusion-io Inc., a leading developer of flash-based PCIe hardware and software solutions that enhance application performance in enterprise and hyper scale datacenters, in July 2014.[7]
  • SanDisk acquired SMART Storage Systems, a developer of enterprise solid state drives based on the SATA and SAS storage protocols, in 2013.[8]
  • SanDisk acquired Schooner Information Technology, Inc., an enterprise software company that develops flash-optimized database and data store solution in 2012.[9]
  • SanDisk acquired FlashSoft Corporation, a provider of caching software products in 2012.[10]
  • SanDisk acquired Pliant Technology, Inc., a developer of enterprise solid state drives in 2011.[11]
  • SanDisk acquired M-Systems Ltd., a developer of flash memory storage products in 2006.[12]
  • SanDisk acquired Matrix Semiconductor, Inc., a company that pioneers and supplied 3D-based one-time programmable chip technology in 2006.[13]

Innovation

SanDisk holds more than 5,000 patents worldwide. The company’s patent portfolio is consistently recognized as one of the strongest in the technology industry.[14]

SanDisk's intellectual property portfolio includes patents in flash memory device and design, process technology, packaging, test, applications, and system-level technologies that have helped drive the wide adoption and proliferation of flash memory and expand the possibilities of storage.

SanDisk’s sole focus on flash memory has led the company to achieve notable “firsts,” from launching the world’s first solid state drive in 1991 to introducing the industry’s Multi-Level Cell (MLC) flash technologies using two bits (X2) and three bits (X3) per cell.[15] In 2014, SanDisk introduced the world’s highest capacity enterprise solid-state SAS drive,[16] the highest capacity SD cards,[17] the fastest microSD UHS-I cards,[18]the first small memory card and the first memory card that used in capacitive touchscreen mobile phone(LG KE850) the microSD and 1Z-nanometer (nm) technology, the world’s smallest and most advanced NAND flash process node.[19]

Multi-Level Cell stores two bits of data in each flash memory cell to double the “density” of each memory chip. SanDisk pioneered MLC technology to increase capacity and dramatically reduce costs. Both MLC and System Flash were universally adopted by the flash memory industry in 2000.[citation needed]

Three-bits-per-cell technology

X3 NAND uses three bits per cell technology to provide 20 percent more memory chips-per-wafer3 for greater manufacturing efficiency and lower chip cost for the same capital investment. When combined with SanDisk’s All Bit Line (ABL) architecture with advanced programming algorithms and multi-level storage management schemes, X3 NAND flash memory chips offer performance and reliability similar to MLC on the same technology but at a significantly lower cost.

SanDisk’s 3D NAND technology development remains on track to begin pilot production in the second half of 2015 with volume production targeted in 2016.[20]

Gleaning from an IP report on 3D memory which a technology consulting firm LexInnova has released in May 2015, SanDisk is one of the top three patent assignees (with Samsung and Micron) of 3D technology domain with 829 patent applications. The number of patents/patent applications owned by these top assignees comprise around 54 percent of the total patents/patent applications (around 2,300) filed in this domain.[21]

Thomson Reuters named SanDisk as one of the “Top 100 Global Innovators” in 2014,[14] 2013,[22] and 2012.[23] IEEE Spectrum ranked SanDisk as having one of the strongest patent portfolios out of 5,000 companies and organizations.[24]

Awards and recognition

  • In 2014, SanDisk co-founder Dr. Eli Harari won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama for his innovations and contributions to flash memory storage solutions.[25]
  • In 2012, the Enough Project ranked SanDisk the third highest of 24 consumer electronics companies on "progress on conflict minerals".[26]

History

SanDisk founders: Jack Yuan, Eli Harari, and Sanjay Mehrotra (2010).

SanDisk was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari, Sanjay Mehrotra and Jack Yuan, non-volatile memory technology experts.[27]

SanDisk co-founder Dr. Eli Harari developed the Floating Gate EEPROM which proved the practicality, reliability and endurance of semiconductor-based data storage. This pioneering work laid the foundation for the flash memory market that significantly impacted the consumer electronics industry, enabling new products across multiple categories. Early on, SanDisk (then known as SunDisk) recognized that digital cameras would need removable flash memory storage, and computers could become ever more mobile and light and would require a similar storage technology.[28]

Dr. Harari offered the removable flash memory card technology to Kodak for inclusion in their cameras in 1988. Kodak offered to fund the development on condition that SanDisk offer a three-year exclusive contract for the “digital film” under the Kodak brand. Dr. Harari rejected the offer because he wanted competition in the marketplace to encourage growth of the flash memory industry and the opportunity to build the SanDisk brand. Today, SanDisk is a global brand and its products are sold in more than 100 countries around the world.

Other products and technologies

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. http://news.yahoo.com/western-digital-buy-sandisk-19-billion-deal-113734643--finance.html
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. http://www.enterprisetech.com/2015/05/08/patents-show-whos-winning-the-ssd-race/
  22. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links